Long-Lost Beethoven Duets

The lighter side of Beethoven! Five arrangements of Irish and Scottish folk songs have been found, tied with the original twine. They date from 1815.

This was quite an unusual thing for Beethoven to be involved with. He really poured himself into these settings and took them very seriously. This is Beethoven at his closest involvement with British and Irish culture.

Beethoven, who lived from 1770-1827, grappled with settings of God Save the King and Auld Lang Syne.

In his diaries, he wrote: "The Scotch songs show how unconstrainedly irregular melodies can be treated with the help of harmony."

Nukes Are Green

The environmentalists are in a quandary. Nuclear power is the only power sourse that does not contribute to global warming.

One of the most eloquent advocates of nuclear energy is James Lovelock, the British scientist who created the Gaia hypothesis, which holds that Earth is, in effect, a self-regulating organism.

"I am a Green, and I entreat my friends in the movement to drop their wrongheaded objection to nuclear energy," Mr. Lovelock wrote last year, adding: "Every year that we continue burning carbon makes it worse for our descendents. ... Only one immediately available source does not cause global warming, and that is nuclear energy."